Visualize Searching with Quintura - Getting the Picture
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Quintura claims that its interface is intuitive and easy to use, but if you're like me, you'll benefit from taking the search engine's animated tour before actually giving it a try. It's a very short video (just under a minute and a half). As near as I can tell, it doesn't have an audio component, and doesn't need one; I didn't have my speakers on.
Quintura's home page is divided into two sections. The top half contains the search box; you can search on either the web or images. To the right of the search box you can click on options for saving your search, sharing it with a friend (sending your search to them via email), or simply sending an email to a friend to invite them to discover Quintura for themselves. When you perform a search, it is this half that contains your search cloud.
The bottom half actually scrolls up and down. Before you conduct a search, it contains information that explains how to use the service, including a link to the tour; in addition, you can click on the "About Quintura" link to find out more about the company, or check out its blog. You can also send feedback or click on a link for help; this gives you a non-animated overview with lots of links. I recommend the link labeled "search examples" because it contains much of the same information as the animated video, but in a non-animated format that you can take your time digesting.
There's also a link that lets you adjust the search engine's settings. You can adjust three things. The size of your search cloud can be adjusted to any number of keywords between 10 and 30; the default is 20. You can select to auto-refine your results or not; if you do, Quintura downloads more relevant links each time you point to a keyword on your visual map (default is on). Finally, you can adjust the animation quality of your visual map; the faster the PC, the higher the animation quality it can support. The default is none - and being old-fashioned, I let that stand.
Incidentally, it's almost more accurate to refer to Quintura as an interface rather than a search engine in its own right. It's a way you can interact with search results. Yahoo is the engine behind those results. In any case, that's more than enough background; it's time to try it out.
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